Princess Diana's USA sweatshirt is up for auction - see the story behind it

By Meghan Wray

August 28, 2018

Princess Diana is one of the Royal Family's most enduring fashion icons – but who knew one of her most casual pieces could hold such profound meaning
all these years later? While touring the Italian Riviera on a yacht with her
then-boyfriend
Dodi Fayed in the summer of 1997,
Diana gave her Ralph Lauren USA pullover to a lucky stewardess, who has
cherished the item for more than a decade. Now, it’s up for auction
and expected to garner a whopping $10,000.

The article
of clothing was given to
Deborah Gribble,
who was chief stewardess and one of only five staff members aboard the Jonikal yacht,
owned by Dodi’s father
Mohamed Al-Fayed.
As a thank you for her service, the Princess of Wales passed along the
off-white sweatshirt, only to tragically pass away in a car crash evading
paparazzi a few hours later. As anyone else would do, Deborah hung onto the
sweatshirt for quite some time, but has since decided to let it go
for auction on RR
Auction.

Though
Princess Diana was very much a people person, spending much of her time giving
back to charities and meeting with the people they directly support, parts of
her life were very private – and Deborah was one of few who got an insider glimpse. She described the princess as “relaxed, fun and light” and
never wearing a full face of makeup.

“I felt very privileged to be in this
secret environment. We anchored in beautiful secluded bays of Sardinia where
the water is so turquoise and clear,” she gushed to
Women’s
Wear Daily last year. “Any time Diana was in view in public
the media was there. In this case, when she was not in view [to the public],
there was no media.”

Diana was
really excited to get back to things in England, sadly unaware that her life
would end only a few hours after disembarking the yacht. “She mentioned looking
forward to getting back. She wanted to see her boys and she liked to go to the
gym – that was a big thing she mentioned a few times to me,” Deborah revealed.
“She also missed eating at more of a British time, which is a 6 or 7 o’clock as
opposed to 10 o’clock in the Mediterranean. She really was living a totally
different lifestyle than she was used to.”

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